ABSTRACT
In this essay Josephine Donovan discusses the development of feminist animal care theory from its beginnings in the early 1990s to the present. Feminist animal care theory developed in reaction against the animal rights theory developed by Tom Regan and the utilitarian theory enunciated by Peter Singer. She argues that these theories privilege reason or mathematical calculation. In addition, they are abstract theories which isolate the individual and obscure the particular circumstances of an ethical event. Donovan emphasizes the dialogical nature of care theory: listening to animals and caring about what they are telling us.
